EXPLANATORY INDEX. 



417 



Perhaps this may be a cruel way of killing the Guana, but, 

 like nearly all reptiles, it is little sensitive to pain, and 

 wonderfully tenacious of life, and, as it must be destroyed for 

 food, perhaps the pointed stick is the quickest mode of killing 

 it. Not that the natives trouble themselves about the in- 

 fliction of pain, for, besides the mode of securing the Guana 

 as above mentioned, they sew its lips together, in order to 

 prevent it from biting, and keep it without food until they 

 want it. Here, again, they are not more cruel than our rat- 

 catchers, who used to sew together the lips of their ferrets, or 

 our fishermen, who used to disable their lobsters by " pegging '' 

 their claws as soon as caught. 



GuAVA {Psidivm, pomi/erum). — The tree which bears tins 

 well-known fruit, is quite a little one, scarcely larger than a 



privet bush, and the fruit is small, round and green. It can 

 be eaten without any preparation, but is mostly made into 



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